Edward Parone

Edward Parone was a writer and director best known for serving as an artistic member of New York’s Playwrights Unit and for mentoring Edward Albee, Sam Shepard and LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka).

Parone was a director and writer for the theater during the 1960s, where he contributed to the development and production of new American plays. He also directed the world premiere of Jones’ play Dutchman in 1964, and in 1969, he directed the Broadway play Dozens, starring Morgan Freeman.

After moving to Los Angeles, he directed at the Mark Taper Forum, including the world premiere of John Guare’s Muzeeka and Tom Stoppard’s Travesties.

Parone also directed for television, including episodes of the series Skag, Family, Knots Landing, Cassie & Co., The Family Tree and Paper Dolls. He also helmed the television movies Promise Him Anything, Letters from Frank, Norma Rae and The Six of Us.

Additionally, he served as an assistant to the producer on the 1961 Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe film, The Misfits, and in 1986, he had a small role as Mr. Emilio in the film Black Moon Rising, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Hamilton and Robert Vaughn.

Also, Parone’s poetry was published in The New Yorker and he wrote and edited two books, New Theatre in America and Collision Course.

He died January 24, 2016, in Nambe, New Mexico. He was 90.